P3
HIV prevention efforts are shifting from the traditional focus on increasing education and awareness to HIV negative persons to providing support and education to individuals who are HIV-positive. Health care for HIV+ individuals has generally been centered on medical care and social support services. HIV Primary Prevention for Positives (P3) seeks to enhance those services with culturally specific prevention education that strengthens and supports risk reduction skills, improving the ability of infected persons to engage in and sustain protective behaviors over the course of a lifetime. P3 is viewed as a bridge between the medical and prevention environments with the potential to have a major impact on the numbers of people who could remain free of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. Many of the barriers that prevent individuals from accessing medical care, such as substance abuse, poverty, fear of rejection, mental illness, and lack of knowledge about available services, are addressed in P3 efforts. Prevention activities should address multiple issues that affect the ability of HIV+ persons to take responsibility for their own and others’ health.